Fresh claims of abuse at Catholic school leave French PM Bayrou on the defensive

MARSEILLE, France (CN) — A scandal over accusations of widespread abuse at a Catholic school with ties to the French prime minister widened Thursday as 40 new complaints were filed with claims of physical and sexual violence, including rape, over decades.

A former teacher charges that Prime Minister François Bayrou turned a blind eye to reports of issues at the institution some of his children attended and where his wife once taught. Bayrou — still mayor of the southwestern town of Pau where the Notre-Dame-de-Bétharram school is located, a former education minister who held various other posts in the region for decades, and a devout Catholic — denies any knowledge of the abuse. French President Emmanuel Macron has said that he believes him.

But the scandal, which has become known as the Bétharram affair, is exposing the prevalence of abuse in French Catholic institutions, a long-enduring issue.

In 2023, former students who said they were victims of violence at the school formed a Facebook group, which initially led 114 of them to file complaints. At least one suspect was charged on Friday, according to media reports.

“In 1996, a 14-year-old schoolboy entrusted me with his defense, since he had been the victim of violence,” Jean-François Blanco, a Pau-based lawyer defending victims of the Bétharram affair, told Courthouse News. “Blows that had exploded his eardrum, with a 40% hearing loss.”

While attending the Catholic school in southwestern France, the boy, identified as Marc, also endured “the torture of the steps.” This was a common punishment at the institution, according to the victims — students would be left outside on the school steps overnight, in their underwear, often in freezing weather. The treatment landed Marc in the hospital and prompted his family to seek legal action.

“When I discovered what happened to this young boy, I was totally stunned,” Blanco said. “Not only by the blow, which was extremely violent, and the torture of the steps, but by the torture of the person — it was real torture.”

Anne Bouillon, a prominent French lawyer for survivors of domestic and sexual abuse, told Courthouse News the issues are not limited to one place.

“There are all forms of mistreatment in French institutions, everywhere, where adults can exercise power over children in situations of mistreatment; and obviously, in institutions managed by the Catholic Church as well … of course I have had to experience such situations in my professional practice,” she said. “What we observe is that for years, hundreds of years, what has prevailed is the law of silence, and that is gradually beginning to crumble.”

Some of Bayrou’s children were in class with people who filed complaints, which has led public questions about what he knew and when.

Olivier Costa, a director at the Center of Political Research at Sciences Po, told Courthouse News that it’s unlikely Bayrou will be affected politically unless some proof surfaces that he lied about his knowledge of the scandal.

“If we could prove that he put pressure to not investigate Bétharram, if it were proven that he lied, then I think he would be forced to resign,” Costa told Courthouse News. “There have been other cases in France where ministers lied before parliament and if it was proven, they were forced to resign because it is considered a very serious offense.”

The political “he said, she said” is taking some attention away from the issue of sexual abuse in Catholic schools. Blanco is angling to broaden the investigation into the responsibility of the church, politicians and administrators who did not react.

“The silence of the church, the passivity of the church and its leaders has meant that this system of violence, this sanctification of violence has continued for decades,” he said. “So justice must seek responsibility because it is inconceivable, unacceptable that during these decades, children have been subject to appalling violence.”

Costa, Bouillon and Véronique Le Goaziou, a sociologist and researcher specializing in sexual violence at the Mediterranean Sociology Laboratory, all agree that abuse of children has been prevalent in French Catholic institutions for decades, and things like corporal punishment were generally accepted until recently.

“It’s kind of a magnifying mirror of what has happened in many congregations or communities that had educational institutions,” Le Goaziou told Courthouse News. “It’s from the ’50s up to the ’80s or ’90s, where it was considered somewhat normal in a certain way.”

Costa and Bouillon cite hypocrisy surrounding the issue.

“It’s true in all affairs that concern the church. … There’s this issue of double talk on the institution which says ‘yes, we are going to protect the victims and put an end to the law of silence and yes, we want to repair what has been done,’” Bouillon said. “And at the same time, this discourse is not really followed by action, and the deep awareness of the fact that the systemic organization of the church generates violence against the bodies of children.”

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